Immigration is a tricky subject
for a lot of libertarians. If there is one issue that has caused more
fights in libertarian circles it is the question of restricting a person’s
right to movement.
But in a world of private
property where does that right end? We know where it is in a world of
public property. It doesn’t. I’m very Hoppean in my views on
private property and the private production of defense. So, I have zero
problem going toe to toe with the left-libertarians who refuse to divorce
themselves from their principled hobby horses and who push for open borders
uber alles.
It’s stupid, counter-productive
and, frankly, one of the main reasons why libertarians are thoroughly corrupted
as a political force in the U.S., having been neutered by the Koch brothers
fighting about irrelevancies.
Immigration
issues are on the ballot today. The Soros-funded caravan is a
thinly-veiled political stunt which is being used to fuel the unquenchable
greed of globalists using Marxist arguments of envy to sow sympathy for those
marching to take back what was supposedly stolen by evil white American
Imperialists.
The sad truth is that part of
that narrative is true. It’s also why open borders are incompatible with
the world we live in today. Because both the warfare state and the welfare
state create an artificially high supply of migrants and an artificial demand
for subsidy of those migrants, especially, as here in the U.S. where those
migrants overwhelmingly vote for the party who will further subsidize them.
This is far beyond the
principle that peaceable people should be free to traverse arbitrary political
boundaries.
Those artificial political
boundaries are created through the application of private property of the
citizens nee subjects of the government. If anyone has a claim on the
property expropriated by this government it is the taxpayers themselves and not
those trudging across Mexico in search of a handout.
Because like it or not, that’s
what’s on the table today. That’s reality. When my grandparents
came here from Italy they didn’t ask for a handout. They weren’t given
one either.
All they wanted was the
opportunity, which they took and were grateful for.
So, it makes me happy today to
see Italian Interior Minister and all-around badass Matteo Salvini highlight
just how sick and insane the whole immigration issue is by announcing he’s
cutting in half the daily allowance of migrants from 35€ per day (PER DAY!) to
19€.
That’s nearly $1200 per month
folks.
As
Ron Paul so succinctly said on the campaign trail, when you
subsidize something you get more of it.
So, Italy under the direction
of an EU-appointed Prime Minister and government was handing out nearly €1
billion a year to migrants in a country under a brutal austerity program and
laboring under a crushing debt load due to fiscal mismanagement.
Now, it doesn’t take an
economist to tell you that people respond to incentives. No wonder
everyone wants in. And this is where I break with my left-libertarian
brethren.
Open borders are incompatible
with public property on the subject of defense. Because the state via public
roads exports behavior the community doesn’t want to your front yard and you
have no direct way to combat this.
It is especially incompatible
with public property in which Marxist wealth transfer systems are in place.
In fact, the political system
is so dysfunctional it encourages this behavior to suit the agenda of the
wealthy at the expense of the middle class. So has it been in both Europe
and the U.S.
And the sick display of using
economic migrants as political footballs lies at their feet. And those
who stand up against this abrogation of the basic property rights of natives
are labeled racists, elitists, populists and Nazis.
So, Salvini made a brilliant
political move by highlighting this insane practice of paying people to come be
subsidized by native Italians who, frankly, had very little say in the matter.
Because up until today I didn’t
know Italy was paying these people €35 per day. And I’m sure a lot of
Italians didn’t either. So, by cutting the allowance Salvini highlights
the practice but doesn’t end it outright, leaving that decision to voters to
continue to be outraged about.
It also puts both his coalition
partners at Five Star Movement and the rest of the Italian political elite and
media in a position to defend a practice that 60% of Italians are furious
about, illegal immigration.
He can do this because the
polls are trending in his favor. Any disagreement with his coalition
partner puts them on a path to call for snap elections and reversing the terms
of the coalition since The League now out-polls M5S. Salvini knows this
and it’s why he can continue to push on this issue because it is 1) popular and
2) the right thing to do.
The solution to the immigration
problem lies at the heart of our attitude towards government. The more
power the government has to co-opt private property and the private production
of defense the more the borders have to be controlled because of the perverse
incentives the State engenders.
Like with most of our political
problems, the solution is leaving the wealth of a community in the hands of
that community to be free to try different solutions of their own accord.
It isn’t more power to the state.
And to the left libertarians
who think destroying the country by flooding it with economic migrants is the
most efficient way to achieve that end, I say, try that in your backyard, bub.
Because it ain’t happening in
mine.